Developer Biography

Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明) was born in April 1955 in the outskirts of Nagoya. In 1974 he entered high school to study art specializing in publicity. In 1977 he decided to abandon this to enroll in cartoon drawing.

Some time afterwards, he entered Shueisha, the biggest manga publisher in Japan, as a mangaka or cartoonist, where he started drawing as a professional. It was here he published his first work as a professional. In December 1978, he published his first manga, Wonder Island in the popular Shonen Weekly Jump.

Akira Toriyama is most known for designing the popular manga series Dragon Ball. In the world of video games, his most important work is character design for the famous RPG series Dragon Quest.